Dot Coffee – What’s in a Name?

Photo: Drift Away Coffee

Name.Kitchen, who you might remember from my own quirky little story, has asked me to share an inspiring small business story with you. Suyog Mody and Anu Menon, an absolutely adorable couple who kicked the corporate lifestyle to the curb to pursue their passion. They relished the ritual of their morning coffee together, and from that, Driftaway Coffee was born.

Their small business, found at the oh-so-memorable driftaway.coffee, is a coffee-lover’s dream. The online-only subscription service starts with a tasting kit featuring four distinct flavor profiles. The kit enables new customers to discover the unique tastes coffees can have based on where they are from & how they’ve been roasted.

If you love the back story behind a business or a name as much as I do, you’ll want to read on for an interview with Suyog and Anu from Name.Kitchen. 

Photo: Drift Away Coffee

I love the story behind a name. What’s yours? I’m It goes back to feeling you get when you drink a cup of coffee on a weekend morning at home and you have a little bit of time and everything isn’t going crazy. That feeling that coffee gives you when you are taking your time and drinking it and enjoying it on its own merit.

It’s also got a little bit to do with the fact that coffee travels a lot, like thousands of miles, before it gets to you. You start to be aware that it’s coming from very far away, from a very different economic, social and political environment. Some of that we directly put in the packaging, as well. There are tags associated with every pouch that gets sent, with information about where the coffee is coming from — tags inspired by vintage airline tags.

P.S. Here’s how Shrimp Salad Circus got its name!

Photo: Drift Away Coffee

Driftaway.coffee is so unique! What drew you to .coffee versus a traditional .com? It’s a URL that implies what we do. We are an online business exclusively selling online. There is no café and probably will not for be one for awhile. So we’re trying to focus on e-commerce. Not having a physical location and physical space, our website is basically our location.

The difference and the uniqueness of ‘dot-coffee’ — that’s a cherry on top.

Photo: Drift Away Coffee

How do people react to such a unique domain name? Any confusion? Being a ‘dot-coffee’ is a good conversation starter. Everyone looks at me twice. I still get a lot of eyebrows when I say ‘Driftaway-Dot-Coffee.’ They’re like, ‘Driftaway-Dot-Coffee-Dot-Com?’ And I have to say, ‘No, just ‘dot-coffee.’ But it’s a conversation about the name. Then the conversation focuses very quickly on deeper level about us as a company.

With new not-coms, like .photography, .style, and (hold the phone, you guys!?!) .WINE coming out all the time, you might find that the perfect solution to get you out of a business (or blog!) naming rut is to tack something memorable to the end. If you still find yourself stuck somewhere between .com, .coffee, .ihavenoideawhattodo, Name.Kitchen has helpful naming tools to jumpstart your brainstorm.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Name.Kitchen.